1. Field
The present application relates to a chuck mechanism for electrode terminals that is used in a charge/discharge testing device for flat-rechargeable batteries formed in a plate shape.
2. Description of the Related Art
A flat-rechargeable battery 1 formed in a plate shape as shown in FIG. 23 and FIG. 24 is used in many technical fields, and this flat-rechargeable battery 1 has a pair of electrode terminals 5, 7 in a thin piece shape projecting in one direction from a flat case 3.
Similarly to conventional rechargeable batteries, the flat-rechargeable batteries 1 also undergo a charge/discharge test for quality inspection several times after produced in a factory, and thereafter acceptable products are half-charged to be shipped as products.
FIG. 25 shows a charge/discharge testing device for flat-rechargeable batteries disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-58135, and this charge/discharge testing device 9 includes a charge/discharge rack 13 provided with a group of vertically hung clip-type coupling terminals 11 coupled with electrode terminals 5, 7 of flat-rechargeable batteries 1, a contact support 17 disposed to face the group of the coupling terminals 11 and supporting a group of contacts 15 coming into contact or separating from the coupling terminals 11, a support reciprocating mechanism 19 reciprocating the contact support 17 in a predetermined direction to make the corresponding coupling terminals 11 and contacts 15 come into contact with or separate from each other, and a charge/discharge power source 21 coupled with the group of the contacts 15, and the charge/discharge testing device 9 is capable of conducting a charge/discharge test of a large number of the flat-rechargeable batteries 1 at a time.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-319334 discloses a charge/discharge and inspection system for flat-rechargeable batteries which includes a battery container in which many flat-rechargeable batteries are stored and arranged in a fixed direction, with electrode terminals of the flat-rechargeable batteries being inserted in many insertion holes formed in its bottom plate, and a chuck mechanism chucking the electrode terminals projecting from the insertion holes of the battery container, wherein the chuck mechanism is moved close to the battery container by a first operation (lift) mechanism after the many flat-rechargeable batteries are stored and arranged in the battery container, and thereafter the chuck mechanism is made to chuck the electrode terminals by a second operation (lift) mechanism.
In this manner, the charge/discharge testing device 9 is capable of conducting the charge/discharge test of the many flat-rechargeable batteries 1 at a time, but it took a lot of trouble to couple the flat-rechargeable batteries 1 (electrode terminals 5, 7) with the group of the many clip-type coupling terminals 11.
In addition, there have been pointed out drawbacks that a place for the charge/discharge test is limited and the whole device becomes large since the charge/discharge rack 13 including the group of the coupling terminals 11 are integrally assembled in the charge/discharge testing device 9.
Further, though capable of conducting the charge/discharge test of the many flat-rechargeable batteries at a time, the conventional example disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-319334 requires a work of storing and arranging the many flat-rechargeable batteries in the battery container prior to the test and thus has a problem of poor workability.
On the other hand, however, at the time of the charge/discharge test, without the structure fixing the flat-rechargeable batteries such as the battery container, positions of electrodes of the flat-rechargeable batteries become irregular, which is likely to result in incapability of accurate chucking.